


the closed position (return to start)

by alpacas



Category: Fruits Basket
Genre: Gen, i don't really know what this story is but sure, non-explicit reference to sexual matters, non-explicit reference to violence and death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 12:29:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1145997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alpacas/pseuds/alpacas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There have been many generations in the zodiac.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the closed position (return to start)

**1652.**

The monkey is, as they all know, the wisest of the animals; and so when Nobuto says that he can break the regeneration cycle, free the trapped from its curse once and for all, the family sighs,  _at last_ , and gather to him. He is only a young man, but he is the monkey, and he is the head of the Soma family, and his wisdom is known to all, and thus the six living members of the zodiac are brought together, horse, bird, snake, tiger, and himself, and they fast for the first twelve days of the new year. On the thirteenth, they build a pyre, and step into it.

Four months later, a girl is born, cursed by the spirit of the cat.

 

 

**1926.**

Shimako wishes to be a dancer, but she is the year of the ox, and her family tells her it is futile. No girl wishes to be a cow, a plain, heavy beast of burden, and she practices in her room every day, copying the images she sees in her film magazines. Her family tells her that is inappropriate, such admiration for western culture, but it's glamorous and different and she wants nothing more. She imagines her name in glowing lights, fur coats, long cigarettes, a life in a land of plush carpets and shining cars. Her family tells her to stop dreaming, and when she is eighteen she is given in an arranged marriage to a distant relative.

He is inside and knows about her curse; he is not a cruel man but he cares nothing about her. He gives her two sons she can never hold, and Shimako puts away her magazines and stops dancing.

 

 

**1802.**

Hiroyoshi calls himself the tiger of the battlefields, although he is no great warrior; he is a large man, gone somewhat to seed, with a heavy stomach and round face. I dye my hair with the blood of those I've slain, he boasts, but most accept that he uses madder dyes, and he dresses in kimono just as bright and outlandish. He is a warrior of no true honour or skill, but people are amused instead of offended, even when he takes to whoring and comes to acknowledge fifteen — fifteen! — children borne from such unions as his own. As fitting for a virile old warrior like myself, he boasts, and dies at the age of fifty-seven with a sword in his hand.

 

 

**894.**

Kose does not look at women, does not speak to women, does not allow himself to be in the presence of a one. When he was young there was a servant, and he had wanted her, and used his higher status to attempt to take her — but the gods had seen fit to punish him for this sin, and transformed him into the baseborn dog that he was; lowly and full of only wanting. The servant had fled, and he had never attempted to take another again. When the head of the family attempts to arrange a marriage, he shaves his head and becomes a monk. The family whispers, how pious, how pure. And Kose wants, and wants, and wants. But he never touches a woman again.

 

 

**654.**

When rats overtake the capital, the Emperor says it shall be moved. Katano has lived in the capital for four years with her husband, and her husband says they will move with the Emperor; that they are poor, and may gain fortune in his favour. She says that they will not, they will stay in their home and she will change their fortunes for the better. He is terrified of her and her curse, her spineless husband, and she is given her way. The rats do not bother her; how can a part of her bother her? Katano kills every cat she sees, and sells their flesh for meat. 

They start to say she's a witch after a year, when the rats still infest her home, when her disapproving, terrified husband is gone for good, when her fortunes have turned and she has become one of the city's most wealthy. The idea of her being a witch is ridiculous; she laughs to herself, stroking the warm, soft body of one of her rats. She's just a hard-working widow, doing what she can to survive. 

 

 

**1955.**

He's getting married, Youko says when she brings Tadashi's meal for the day. He loves to see her, the lines blooming on her face, the new thinness of her hands. She could become an old crone, and he'd be happy if he could see her. His room is shadowy even in midday, but she is like the sun. She tells him the name of their son's future wife; not a member of the family, college educated. She sniffs her nose —  _haughty_. It was a surprise engagement. She had barely any advance warning. She doesn't think their son will want to introduce her to Tadashi; he understands. The boy stopped visiting several years ago; he understands that as well. He wouldn't want his son, the other light in his life, to be tainted by too much association with someone like him. 

Youko pours them more tea, his cup first, and his heart swells at the gesture. She promises she will have photographs taken at the wedding, so that he may see, and he loses himself in happiness, imagining how beautiful, how wonderful, that will be. The beads on his wrist, comfortable and warm, clink softly against the table as he holds his teacup in his hands.


End file.
